Students at the University of Austin are getting an overview of the nation’s rapidly expanding education choice movement, including its storied history in Florida.
The survey course includes guest lectures delivered by top national researchers and thought leaders, including Ron Matus, director of research and special projects at Step Up For Students. The nonprofit organization is Florida’s and the nation’s largest education choice scholarship funding organization. Matus, who spent 25 years as a journalist and eight years as the state education reporter at the Tampa Bay Times, has authored many white papers on education innovation in Florida for Step Up.
The topic of Matus’s lecture was “Freedom, Pluralism and School Choice: Competing Rationales and Contemporary Practice” and included a special emphasis on education innovation in the Sunshine State.
Matus shared the evolution of public education in Florida from its first model of neighborhood zoned district schools to the rise of charter schools, homeschooling, private school scholarships, educational savings accounts, a la carte learning, and even public schools now offering individual courses paid for with education savings accounts. He also described the many learning options now available, from traditional private schools to farm and forest schools to microschools and programs customized by families.
Matus also recommended reading that exposed students to various arguments in favor of education choice, including economist Milton Friedman’s 1955 groundbreaking essay “The Role of Government in Education,” which emphasized free markets and competition, and John E. Coons, a professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, who focused on dignity and fairness to all families regardless of income.
Erin Davis Valdez, executive director of the university’s Center for Education and Public Service, developed the course, which followed two K-12 practicums with rotations that began in the fall of 2025 at participating private and charter schools.
She describes the program as being in “the incubator phase,” and hopes to expand it into an academic minor.
“What we’re trying to do every term is offer a course for students interested in education policy as a career or in teaching as a career or something adjacent to it, like entrepreneurship,” she said. “But for now, students can take these as elective classes, and it builds their interest in the field.”
Valdez, who was homeschooled as a young child in Lakeland, Florida, a year before it became legal, said she chose the guest lecturers by looking for the best researchers and thought leaders in the movement. In addition to Matus, the list includes Eric Wearne, an associate professor in the Education Economics Center at Kennesaw State University and director of the Hybrid Schools Project. Wearne, who once described most traditional teacher prep programs as “thinly veiled arms of the HR department of the school district,” spoke on “Design Policy for New School Models.”
Others included Patrick Wolf, Distinguished Professor and 21st Century Chair in School Choice at the University of Arkansas, who spoke about the history of school choice policy, Jay P. Greene, senior fellow at the Defense of Freedom Institute, who spoke on the national responsibility of American universities; Katherine Bathgate, CEO and founder of SchoolForward, who spoke about economic foundations and emerging policy issues I education freedom; Mary K Wells, managing partner at Bellwether, who spoke on the last 30 years of education reform efforts; and Anita Scott, director of public policy for the Texas Home School Coalition, who spoke on connecting policy and practice in the homeschooling community.
Matthew Ladner, a senior adviser for education policy implementation at The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Education Policy and former executive editor of the NextSteps blog, is scheduled to lecture on June 1 about new directions in education choice and the question of accountability. The class will conclude June 8 with a lecture by Robert Pondiscio, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, whose topic is “The Last Days of Public School.”
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Parents, students, and education leaders who gathered at the Florida Capitol on Thursday had a message for the Florida Education Association, the teachers union that filed a lawsuit to end K-12 education choice scholarship programs used by nearly 540,000 children, as well as all charter schools.
Just drop it.
That was just one of the messages on the signs that supporters held up as they stood on the steps of the Old State Capitol building, as advocates proclaimed how education choice scholarships changed lives for the better. “My School My Choice” and “Protect Florida School Choice” could also be seen on the bright yellow signs. Former Gov. Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Florida’s Future organized the news conference. Bush launched the private school choice movement in 1999, right after he became governor.
“The scholarships are VERY important to me,” said Kiteka Walker, whose son, Rashad, is in seventh grade at Dixon School for Arts & Sciences in Pensacola. After attending previous schools and homeschooling Rashad, he asked to return to school. She sent him to Dixon because it was the right fit, offering Rashad opportunities to participate in student government, the robotics team, and other enriching activities. The Florida Family Empowerment Scholarship he received made it affordable for him to attend the private school while his two younger brothers attended a private elementary school. If the lawsuit succeeds in eliminating the scholarships, Walker said she would have to homeschool him again because she could not afford private school for three children.
“Parents choose where we send our children to daycare, we choose where to go to college. Why can’t we do the same with K-12 schools?”
Rashad Walker, who traveled to the event with his family, shared how he is thriving at the school his mother chose for him.
“Dixon has been the perfect fit for me. It has a lot of culture and provides a bunch of opportunities in band, art, singing, technology, and media,” he said.
Rashad, who also participates in robotics and serves on the student council, said the school encourages him to try new things, like playing a piano that had been gathering dust at home for years.
“Dixon inspired me to teach myself to play the piano. I practice every day on that piano at home. No more dust,” he said.
Last fall, when he was hospitalized for three weeks following knee surgery, Rashad created craft kits called DUCK bags that help kids combat boredom. He sold the kits at business fairs and is making some to donate to children’s hospitals.
None of that would have happened if it weren’t for Dixon, he said. And Dixon wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for the scholarship.
“That’s why I don’t understand this lawsuit,” Rashad said. “Why get rid of something that is life-changing for other people? That helps them achieve better things in life?”
Rita Brown can see proof that education choice changes lives every day at Brownsville Preparatory Institute in Tallahassee, a private school she founded more than 20 years ago.
The school began as a pre-kindergarten and now serves 95 students through third grade. Brownsville is in a low-income community. Most parents can’t afford private education after their 4-year-olds complete the state-subsidized pre-kindergarten program.
The scholarships, Brown said, changed that.
It allowed her to add grades. Today, Brownsville students typically learn to read at age 3 and are adding, subtracting, writing, and learning cursive.
“We are the best school in our neighborhood,” she said. “Florida’s education choice scholarships have been a vital part of that.”
If the teachers union wins in court, Brown said, the school would lose most of its school-age children.
“That K-3 program would probably die. It would be devastating for our parents. We have all these students doing amazing things, but they would be forced to go to schools that don’t meet their needs. “
She called the lawsuit “frivolous” and “an attempt to turn back the clock.” But Florida is too embedded in education choice to return to a bygone era.
“At the end of the day, we need to be collaborative in educating all students,” Brown said.
The event inspired a lawmaker to attend to voice his opposition to the lawsuit.
State Sen. Jonathan Martin, R-Fort Myers, said empowering parents to choose the best options for their children does not take away resources from other students and makes America “the light on the hill that Ronald Reagan talked about.”
Florida’s robust scholarship programs have led the way and “will continue to make sure our light stays the brightest, not just in this country but around the world.”
You may have read or seen a story this week about the Florida Education Association, the state's largest teachers union, filing a lawsuit challenging the state’s scholarship programs and its charter schools.
Basically, the union is claiming that because private and charter schools don’t have to follow the same rules as district schools, the funding of these programs violates the Florida state constitution. The state constitution has a provision that Florida must provide a "uniform, efficient, safe, secure, and high-quality system of free public schools".
The union wants the courts to interpret this provision to mean the state can fund nothing but district-run schools, or at least make all schools that receive state funding be “uniform.”
Of course, the whole purpose of education choice is to create alternatives to traditional district schools to meet the needs of Florida’s incredibly diverse students.
Today, over 50% of taxpayer-funded K-12 students in Florida do not attend their zoned district school. In Miami Dade, our largest district, that figure is over 70%. The largest category of choice is district-run choices: magnets, open enrollment, career academies. Districts have admirably responded to competition.
In a ruling from 20 years ago, the state Supreme Court cited this uniformity provision when ruling that a small scholarship program was unconstitutional. The Harvard Law Review called the ruling an “adventurous reading and strained application” of Florida’s constitution. In contrast, a legal challenge to the tax credit scholarship was defeated in 2017.
The justices on the state Supreme Court — and their legal philosophy — is very different than even a decade ago. It would be very difficult to imagine that this court would interpret the uniformity provision in the same way as 20 years ago.
However, it will be very important to demonstrate to everyone how important education choice is.
Step Up led the coalition that defeated the lawsuit the union brought in 2014. This effort was a wonderful opportunity to show the country what choice meant to Florida families. The culmination of this effort: over 10,000 people came to Tallahassee to show their support for choice:
There will be an even stronger coalition this time around.
For a glimpse into the future of public education, visit Florida.
Nearly three years after landmark legislation gave Sunshine State families the flexibility to choose from an expanding number of learning options, 75% of its 67 school districts now offer a la carte services.
In a recent Johns Hopkins University Homeschool Research Lab podcast, Keith Jacobs, director of provider development at Step Up For Students, explained how putting parents in control of their children’s education dollars is changing the way Florida students learn.
“In every major service offered in human experience, the need for customer service is evident,” said Jacobs, a former public school teacher and administrator. “So, when you’re talking about education, we’ve gone from government-sponsored, government-funded within the public school sector to now families being empowered with the money and the opportunity and the knowledge to make a decision on which a la carte model they feel is most valuable for their child. It’s no longer, ‘I have to go to my neighborhood public school based on the ZIP code we live in.’ They want that level of customization.”
Last year, roughly 80,000 students were funded in the Personalized Education Program, which allows parents to design customized learning for their children who are not enrolled full time in public or private schools. Another scholarship, the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities, allows parents the choice between full-time private school or customized homeschool plans. Last year, about half of the more than 150,000 students who participated in the
UA option chose homeschooling.
“There are many different ways for families to experience homeschool education in Florida,” Jacobs told host Christy Batts, a senior research data analyst at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education, Institute for Education Policy.
Jacobs has spent nearly two years helping school districts expand learning options for students who receive funding through education savings accounts. These accounts allow parents to use funds for tuition, curriculum, therapies, and other pre-approved educational expenses. That includes services by approved district and charter schools.
Jacobs said 51 of the state’s 67 public school districts have agreed to offer some form of unbundled services. Those can be in-person or virtual, core classes or extracurricular activities.
Jacobs sees the fact that more than 50% of families in Florida exercise some form of choice as a big motivator for school districts to innovate. When it comes to developing their own offerings, Jacobs said his team at Step Up lets district leaders take the lead.
“We try to meet them where they are,” he said.
Rashad Walker’s big idea was born last September in room 429 of the children’s ward of Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola hospital.
Rashad, confined to a bed for three weeks after surgery to repair his knock knees, was bored.
“Insanely bored,” said his mom, Kiteka “Tiki” Walker.
There are only so many books you can read, TV shows you can watch, and video games you can play. His mom and dad, Sean, visited daily, and so did his two younger brothers, but eventually, they ran out of things to talk about.
If only there was a way to occupy your hands and your mind, to unlock the imagination. Get the creative juices flowing.
Rashad, 13, had an idea. It would require construction paper, glue, and scissors.
And imagination.
The result is DUCK, an acronym that stands for Different Unlimited Craft Kits.
“It’s kind of like an emergency kit, but it’s crafty,” he said.
Rashad is a seventh-grader at the Dixon School of Arts and Sciences in his hometown of Pensacola. He attends the K-8 private school with the help of a Florida educational choice scholarship, managed by Step Up For Students.
DUCK debuted in October at Dixon’s business fair. From there, Rashad was invited to sell his kits at the Pensacola Children’s Fair. The kits are priced at $25. Between the two fairs, Rashad made $600.
And he’s just getting started.
“I see myself as an entrepreneur, helping others, helping my generation, or the next generation,” he said. “I want to create more solutions for boredom.”
This is Rashad’s first year at Dixon, a school his mom and grandmother attended when it was still part of the Escambia County School District. Tiki was intrigued by the changes after it became a private school. She liked the arts and science components. The robotic and coding classes. The student-maintained garden.
“They seem to be well in tune to get more out of the students,” Tiki said. “Rashad wasn’t doing any of that yet, and I wanted him to.
“I felt like it was the school for him, and it’s been a wonderful experience. He just blossomed.”
Despite missing three weeks in the fall because of his hospital stay, Rashad quickly made an impact. He was elected to the student government and participates in the school’s music and dance programs.
“He looks for opportunities, which is really neat,” Dixon Principal Dr. Kevin Kovacs said. “He looks at the things we offer and just goes for it.
“It’s a pleasure to see his smile and warmth and drive to get involved. It’s hard to be a new student. It’s hard to be a middle school student. But Rashad fit in, and he fit in right away.”
Rashad had to deliver a speech to the middle school when he ran for the student government. He told of how he wanted to help them and how they could help bring out the leader in him.
He had never been a member of the student government at any of his previous schools.
“I really want to help others,” he said. “I want to try new things.”
Those desires worked in tandem to bring about DUCK.
But first, understand this: Rashad has experience as an entrepreneur.
When he was 3, he received a kit that allowed him to engrave names and words into crayons. His parents set up a table for him at a flea market. Tiki said he made $50.
Two years ago, he took some of his mom’s excess supply of Easter-themed art supplies, made baskets, and sold them from the trunk of Tiki’s car, first on the road in front of his grandmother’s house, then on a busier road.
He made $200.
Rashad entered the hospital in early October for guided growth surgery, a procedure where a plate and screws were inserted into each knee. There were complications that required a longer-than-expected stay.
“And boy, he found out what true boredom is,” Tiki said. “I even found out that there was a different level of boredom than you can even imagine.”
Tiki has a container at home of what she called “junk.” It’s filled with feathers, beads, fake snow, old socks, and shirts.
“You name it, we've got it,” Tiki said. “We cut them up and turn them into something.”
What if the junk container were a small box, and the box was filled with items that could keep someone’s hands and mind busy?
Well, you’d have DUCK.
Each kit comes with construction paper that is 4 inches by 6 inches, a small pair of scissors that fold up, a miniature clipboard to hold miniature worksheets and coloring sheets, small crayons, colored pencils that come in a case, and glue.
There are Band-Aids, hand wipes, a hairclip, and lip balm.
The kit also contains a small blanket that can be used as a drop-cloth of sorts, so the items don’t roll away if the user is in a hospital bed or on a plane.
Rashad Walker’s big idea was born last September in room 429 of the children’s ward of Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola hospital.
Rashad, confined to a bed for three weeks after surgery to repair his knock knees, was bored.
“Insanely bored,” said his mom, Kiteka “Tiki” Walker.
There are only so many books you can read, TV shows you can watch, and video games you can play. His mom and dad, Sean, visited daily, and so did his two younger brothers, but eventually, they ran out of things to talk about.
If only there was a way to occupy your hands and your mind, to unlock the imagination. Get the creative juices flowing.
Rashad, 13, had an idea. It would require construction paper, glue, and scissors.
And imagination.
The result is DUCK, an acronym that stands for Different Unlimited Craft Kits.
“It’s kind of like an emergency kit, but it’s crafty,” he said.
Rashad is a seventh-grader at the Dixon School of Arts and Sciences in his hometown of Pensacola. He attends the K-8 private school with the help of a Florida educational choice scholarship, managed by Step Up For Students.
DUCK debuted in October at Dixon’s business fair. From there, Rashad was invited to sell his kits at the Pensacola Children’s Fair. The kits are priced at $25. Between the two fairs, Rashad made $600.
And he’s just getting started.
“I see myself as an entrepreneur, helping others, helping my generation, or the next generation,” he said. “I want to create more solutions for boredom.”
This is Rashad’s first year at Dixon, a school his mom and grandmother attended when it was still part of the Escambia County School District. Tiki was intrigued by the changes after it became a private school. She liked the arts and science components. The robotic and coding classes. The student-maintained garden.
“They seem to be well in tune to get more out of the students,” Tiki said. “Rashad wasn’t doing any of that yet, and I wanted him to.
“I felt like it was the school for him, and it’s been a wonderful experience. He just blossomed.”
Despite missing three weeks in the fall because of his hospital stay, Rashad quickly made an impact. He was elected to the student government and participates in the school’s music and dance programs.
“He looks for opportunities, which is really neat,” Dixon Principal Dr. Kevin Kovacs said. “He looks at the things we offer and just goes for it.
“It’s a pleasure to see his smile and warmth and drive to get involved. It’s hard to be a new student. It’s hard to be a middle school student. But Rashad fit in, and he fit in right away.”
Rashad had to deliver a speech to the middle school when he ran for the student government. He told of how he wanted to help them and how they could help bring out the leader in him.
He had never been a member of the student government at any of his previous schools.
“I really want to help others,” he said. “I want to try new things.”
Those desires worked in tandem to bring about DUCK.
But first, understand this: Rashad has experience as an entrepreneur.
When he was 3, he received a kit that allowed him to engrave names and words into crayons. His parents set up a table for him at a flea market. Tiki said he made $50.
Two years ago, he took some of his mom’s excess supply of Easter-themed art supplies, made baskets, and sold them from the trunk of Tiki’s car, first on the road in front of his grandmother’s house, then on a busier road.
He made $200.
Rashad entered the hospital in early October for guided growth surgery, a procedure where a plate and screws were inserted into each knee. There were complications that required a longer-than-expected stay.
“And boy, he found out what true boredom is,” Tiki said. “I even found out that there was a different level of boredom than you can even imagine.”
Tiki has a container at home of what she called “junk.” It’s filled with feathers, beads, fake snow, old socks, and shirts.
“You name it, we've got it,” Tiki said. “We cut them up and turn them into something.”
What if the junk container were a small box, and the box was filled with items that could keep someone’s hands and mind busy?
Well, you’d have DUCK.
Each kit comes with construction paper that is 4 inches by 6 inches, a small pair of scissors that fold up, a miniature clipboard to hold miniature worksheets and coloring sheets, small crayons, colored pencils that come in a case, and glue.
There are Band-Aids, hand wipes, a hairclip, and lip balm.
The kit also contains a small blanket that can be used as a drop-cloth of sorts, so the items don’t roll away if the user is in a hospital bed or on a plane.
All of the items are purchased on Amazon and modified by Rashad and his mom.
The idea behind the smaller-sized contents is that everything can fit on an overbed table used in hospitals, a snack tray on a plane, or the backseat of a car.
“Trust me,” Rashad said, “you can have a lot of fun with this.”
Rashad wants to grow the product by adding crossword puzzles and word games. He’d like to make an instructional video for kids who aren’t used to arts and crafts. He would like to someday present DUCK to the investors of the TV show Shark Tank in the hopes of receiving financial backing.
Some of Rashad’s customers at the Pensacola Children’s Fair didn’t buy the kits for themselves. Rashad said they asked if they could donate them to the patients in the children’s ward at the hospital.
He thought that was a great idea.
“Because,” Rashad said, “I want to solve that problem where other kids won't have to feel that boredom while they're in the hospital.”
A new state law has replaced Florida’s patchwork of local zoning rules that had prevented some small private schools from opening, paving the way for robust school choice options to expand.
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill 182 on April 20. In addition to a broad swath of education changes, from a cursive writing mandate to a teacher mentoring program, it includes a provision that exempts private schools with 150 or fewer students from applying for costly rezoning and land use changes when operating in commercial or mixed-use zones and in nontraditional buildings, provided they meet fire safety standards or similar checks.
The new law takes effect on July 1. It benefits private schools of all sizes by expanding legislation passed in 2024 that allowed them to operate in houses of worship, museums, theaters, colleges, and former schools or day care centers without needing these changes.
SB 182 also lets them build new facilities on these properties or on land owned by Florida College System schools and state universities without zoning changes.
The new law covers faith-based and secular schools, with Jewish education leaders leading the push for its passage. According to the Florida Department of Education, 15,679 students are enrolled in 85 Jewish schools across the state.
Demand for Jewish day schools has soared as families primarily from the Northeast move to Florida because of its robust education choice scholarship programs. The migration has meant fewer available seats for those seeking schools that provide academic and Judaic instruction.
Teach Florida, a division of the Teach Coalition, which advocates for Jewish nonpublic schools and parents, praised the law as “a transformational moment” for all Florida families.
“Today, Florida confirmed its commitment to students by removing one of the biggest barriers standing between Florida families and the education they want for their children,” said Melissa Glaser, executive director of Teach Florida. “For too long, local zoning restrictions have prevented schools from opening where demand is greatest. This law will help more schools grow, create more classroom seats, and ensure that more students can access the education they deserve.”
Last year, the group published a report on regulations governing the opening of private schools across South Florida. It concluded that local zoning restrictions were a major barrier to opening a new school, due to a patchwork of local laws that limit where schools can open, allow public schools to open in the same areas where private schools are prohibited, impose extra requirements on new private schools such as costly traffic studies regardless of school size, nebulous standards for “compatibility” and “scale,” and arbitrary requirements for lot size, fence height, building sharing and more.
As a result, the typical time to obtain zoning approval for a new school in South Florida was 12 to 18 months, and the process cost more than $150,000 in legal, architectural, and study fees.
“All nonpublic schools should receive the same protections and flexibilities as public schools,” the report said.
For microschools that register as private schools, the law exempts them from fire code complications that limit them to a maximum of five students.
Alison Rini, the founder of Star Lab in Sarasota, could serve only five students during her first year due to fire codes that would require her to spend $97,000 on a sprinkler system for the rec center of a public housing complex where Star Lab operated. A local philanthropy stepped forward to help the housing authority pay for the system, but many founders are not as fortunate.
“The new law is a major win for diverse educational options,” Rini said. “The zoning process is incredibly burdensome.” In addition to the sprinkler system, Rini said she spent $10,000 to apply for a minor conditional use permit to use a one-story building less than 3,000 square feet that had previously housed a day center. The whole process took nearly two years and cost a total of $130,000.
“All of that time and money could have gone into our students and our curriculum; it was so frustrating,” Rini said.
Rini said she had to invest all the time and money with no guarantee of success. However, she said the planning commission easily approved her proposal when she was finally able to present it after 22 months of preparation.
After the vote, Rini said the chairperson commented, “I don’t know why this had to be so hard for her. I’m from Europe, and we have schools in apartment complexes all the time. This is a very compatible use.”
Danny Aqua, projects director for Teach Florida, recently told EdChoice the law adopts common sense fire code reform by 1) requiring fire officials to recognize alternative fire safety methods that are already in the code, and 2) treating similar facilities like day cares and churches as existing schools when applying the fire code.
“The goal is not to reduce safety, but to ensure that regulations designed for large, traditional schools are applied more appropriately to smaller educational environments,” he said.
By Lauren May, Mary Camp, and Ron Matus
First, Florida. Now, Indiana. Which state will be next for a Catholic school comeback?
Our new, 2026 “Catholic school update brief” highlights not only continued Catholic school growth in Florida – which saw enrollment rise for a fifth straight year – but signs of resurgence beyond Florida, nudged by the historic expansion of school choice across America.
As we noted when the latest National Catholic Educational Association statistics were released in March, Indiana is now, like Florida, showing net enrollment growth over the past decade. Among the Top 10 states for Catholic school enrollment, the Sunshine State and Hoosier State are, for now, the outliers.
But don’t sleep on Ohio, which saw its Catholic schools grow by more than 3,000 students this year; or Texas, where a jaw-dropping 274,000 students applied for that state’s brand-new choice program. Don’t overlook smaller states with big choice programs and momentum, including Iowa and New Hampshire. And don’t forget about the potential of the new federal scholarship tax credit to enhance what’s been happening in the states.
Our brief includes a 50-state chart where you can track Catholic school enrollment year-by-year over the past decade. (Big thanks to the NCEA for collecting the data.)
It also includes more insight into the pace-setting growth in Florida, including a rapid rise in the number of students using special-needs scholarships.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out. Our emails are in the bios at the end of the brief.
Editor's note: This post is shared by our sister organization, Step Up, Step Further Scholarship Fund, a new federal scholarship program launching in 2027 to support students in public and private schools.
At Florida TaxWatch’s policy forum, Step Up For Students Founder and Chairman John Kirtley shared how the new federal Education Freedom Tax Credit will help expand opportunity for K-12 low income district school students. “The income levels that the federal law allows are, in my opinion, pretty generous,” Kirtley said. “They’re 300% of the area’s median income, which in Florida will be anywhere up to probably $250,000. However, a scholarship organization can set its own income limits.”
The new tax credit will continue to allow Step Up, Step Further, sister organization of Step Up For Students, to focus on serving the lowest-income students in Florida.
Kirtley went on to illustrate how Florida school districts have seen a dramatic increase in graduation rates since 1981, when the graduation rate hovered under 50%. He noted that a statewide push for greater accountability in schools and grading them has resulted in a graduation rate of over 90%.
“That’s an incredible improvement, and we should all be very proud of that. A great example of how the districts have responded is very close to home for me. My high school, Fort Lauderdale High School, when schools were first graded back in 1999, my high school was an ‘F.’ And it was an ‘F’ for several years,” Kirtley said.
Read the full article at Florida Politics > https://floridapolitics.com/archives/791109-john-kirtley-makes-case-for-choice-encouraging-use-of-education-savings-accounts/
TRINITY, Fla. – Noah Allen was in middle school when he began to teach himself Latin. College-level Latin. He did that for two years.
He also taught himself Japanese. And Korean.
“It’s his superpower,” Noah’s mom, Josie, said. “He loves to learn.”
Noah, 16, is inherently curious. Theater, art, and music are a few areas that pique his interest. Also, the periodic table of the elements.
When he was 8, he wanted to be a nuclear physicist and work with a cyclotron. Later, he thought of a career in linguistics.
Now, as he completes the final semester of high school, Noah wants to study global law.
In Italy.
At Bocconi University in Milan.
To gain admission, he needs at least a 1340 on his SAT, which he has, and a 4.0 GPA, which he also has.
Noah is interested in law. He likes to help others. He has a passion for connecting with people from other cultures. He sees a career in global law as the perfect blend of those interests. He could work for an international organization or practice immigration law.
“I think he has a really bright future,” Josie said. “Noah is going to do amazing things.”
***
Noah, who was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, receives the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities. Step Up For Students, which manages the scholarship program, said that 140,147 students received the scholarship during 2025-26. The average scholarship is worth about $10,000.
He is home educated and learns online through the Florida Virtual School. He also uses the funds from the scholarship to cover the cost of his tutoring, SAT prep classes, and exam fees, and his registration for the Melanated Homeschool Cooperative, which provides field trips, program days for middle and high school students, a graduation ceremony and banquet, and a prom.
The scholarship also pays for his dual enrollment to Pasco-Hernando State College, where he has completed college-level courses in math, psychology, government, and humanities.
“I have been really grateful for the opportunities that the scholarship has given me,” Noah said, adding that having the SAT prep classes and exams paid for was beneficial since he took the test three times to achieve his high score.
“The scholarship helps fund his academic health and his social health,” Josie said, “which, I guess, is his mental health.”
Josie, who has a degree in early childhood education, and her husband, Aaron, who owns a construction company, realized their son was academically gifted at an early age. He was reading by age 4.
“I thought, he’s going to go to school, and all the other kids are going to be learning their alphabet, and he's already reading. He's going to be bored,” Josie said. “We're going to have to figure something else out. We’re going to have to do something different with him.”
Learning at home allowed Noah to move at his own pace, accelerated in most cases, and make accommodations for his ADHD. He could schedule his schoolwork around his therapies and the family's active travel schedule.
Josie is a travel tour guide who writes a travel blog, Traveling in Spanglish.
The family, who lives north of St. Petersburg in Trinity, frequent Europe, especially Italy, where Josie and Aaron met.
Noah has traveled to Mexico, England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Spain, Canada, St. Martin, and Haiti. He has done schoolwork on trains traveling between European cities and logged into an SAT prep course at 10 p.m. local time from Venice, Italy.
His time abroad fueled his passion to learn other languages and cultures, and the customs of the people he met during his journeys.
He said he couldn’t have done that if he attended a traditional school.
“I wouldn't have been able to have those experiences,” he said, “and I might be in a completely different spot than I am now.”
***
Noah has acted in plays and musicals at the Center Stage Youth Theater near his home and the Stageworks Theater in Tampa. He recently appeared in “Hadestown.” He was Eugene in “Grease” and Wally Webb in “Our Town.” He’s also appeared in “Les Misérables.”
“I really like doing theater,” he said. “I like singing, and dancing, and acting.”
For his 16th birthday, Josie treated Noah to a weekend in New York City, where they visited the Museum of Modern Art.
“We had a blast,” he said. “I do love a good art museum.”
He can gaze for hours upon Claude Monet's “Water Lilies” or Vincent van Gogh's “Starry Night.”
“I love impressionist paintings,” Noah said. “They're really beautiful. I just like capturing the vibe of something, or the feeling of something. Not necessarily what it looks like, but how it feels to you.”
For Noah, to be immersed in a painting is the only way to see art.
That’s similar to the reasons why he wants to attend Bocconi University in Milan. He can also begin studying law as a freshman, and the tuition of $15,000 per semester is almost laughable compared to the cost of a college education in the United States. (Tuition for international students at the University of Bologna in Italy, another school that has Noah’s interest, is $2,000 a year.)
Those two are certainly perks, but global law will require Noah to interact with clients from around the world. He’ll need to learn their customs, their methods of communication, and the idiosyncrasies familiar to their culture.
Attending classes with students from Europe will give him a head start.
“I want the experience of studying abroad,” he said. “It's really helpful to be able to experience living in another culture. It really helps you integrate and maybe connect yourself with the world in a way that you can't get by going to school in a place that has a similar culture to you.”
He will be able to communicate with most of his classmates, since there is a chance he speaks their language. He is fluent in Spanish (his mom’s native language), and he’s becoming more conversational in Italian, Japanese, and Korean.
Noah’s dream is to live in Japan and practice global law. That’s where he said he sees himself in five years.
As for Josie, she sees her son doing whatever he puts his mind and heart into.
“He’s going to be a justice-seeker,” she said. “He’s going to bring changes. He’s going to help people. There’s no doubt in my mind that’s going to happen.”
Less than two months after the application season began, record-breaking interest continues with more than 500,000 students applying for Florida’s K-12 education choice scholarships.
Step Up For Students, the nonprofit organization that administers 98% of the state’s scholarships, opened applications for the 2026-27 school year on Feb. 1. A record 200,000 applied during the first three days.
By midday Feb. 10, a total of 300,106 students had applied for scholarships, which represents an 11.7% increase over the same 10-day period last year. By Friday morning, Feb. 27, a total of 401,507 students had applied.
Applications reached the 500,000 mark on March 30, which was 22 days earlier than in 2025.
Step Up For Students CEO Gretchen Schoenhaar said last week that the organization’s team and systems were ready for the surge of interest. Step Up’s technology systems processed 15% more applications on the first day this year than at the same time last year. Of the families who called for assistance, more than 90% reported being “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the support they received.
“Florida continues to set the pace for the nation in education choice,” Schoenhaar said. “Families have become accustomed to seeking options in their children’s education and Step Up For Students is proud to support them every step of the way.”
Since its inception in 2002, Step Up has administered more than 3 million scholarships.
During the 25-26 school year, more than 525,000 students have been funded on Florida’s K-12 scholarship programs to access learning options of their choice. If these students were counted as a single school district, it would be the largest in the state and the third largest in the country. That makes Florida the national leader in education options.
However, not all families end up using their scholarships. Top reasons include: Their preferred private school lacked capacity; they were on a waitlist for a charter school and were accepted; they chose to attend a district school, etc.
Step Up is on track this school year to have 2.75 million transactions on MyScholarShop, its online marketplace, for over $425 million. Step Up is on track to process over 4.5 million reimbursement requests this year, worth over $595 million, four times what it had just two years ago.
Current scholarship families have until April 30 to renew their scholarships for the next school year. All families who want a PEP scholarship must also apply by April 30.
Applications and more details are available here.
We will continue to update the numbers in this post until applications close.
